Help:Table
Tables in NWNWiki should usually use one of the pre-defined formats as described in the table format article. Converting from HTML tables to wiki table syntax can be done automatically with several of the tools listed at Meta:Help:Table. (cnic.org - wackyboy.com - uni-bonn.de - diberri.dyndns.org - pywikipediabot) Layout of images Many times, images in an article are placed using a quirk of table rendering. Because a table can be floated to the left or right side of the screen, it has become common practice to utilize a simple one-celled table to place an image in a particular part of the screen. This was a necessary workaround for old browsers, since it generates a consistent rendering of images in browsers which do not adequately support Cascading Style Sheets. By far, the majority of browsers in use today, however, should do just fine with style sheets. The recommended practice now is to arrange images using a parameter to the image. Table formatting (what not to do): Without tables (what to do instead): Possible problems Tables may cause other difficulties, even when used appropriately. Here are some issues you may want to consider if you use tables in your articles: * Tables may be hard for other people to edit, especially for people who are new to wiki editing. New editors may be daunted if they click "Edit this page" and see a large block of unintelligible (to them) HTML code. Try to keep your tables simple, well-formatted in the source, and use wikitext instead of HTML. You might also add a comment (which will not appear in the rendered page) like "" in order to reassure editors. * It is tricky, even for experienced HTML authors, to make sure that tables render correctly on all (or even many) web browsers. Even the slightest typographical mistake can cause drastic visual problems with the table. You may be confident of your abilities to prevent this from happening, but future editors may not be. Again, keep tables simple and well-formatted, and this is less likely to be a problem. * Large tables, with lots of information, may run off the right side of the screen on lower resolutions. This is sometimes acceptable, especially if the user is warned beforehand (for example, Periodic table (large version) is deliberately very large). If you find it necessary to create a very large table for an article, you may want to consider creating a simpler, smaller version for users who cannot effectively use the larger version (for example, the periodic table is also available in a smaller version). * If you include fixed-width text inside a table (using the HTML code, pre, or tt elements, for example), it may force the page to be wider than necessary. Whenever possible, avoid using fixed-width text inside tables, so the text can flow naturally. A similar problem can happen if you include images inside tables (since images are usually constrained to be a fixed width). * Cells containing a great deal of information may cause rendering problems on some browsers. In particular, a cell containing a large paragraph may jumble the formatting on text-only browsers such as Lynx. This is often necessary, depending on what sort of table you're creating, but if at all possible, try to limit the amount of content you place in table cells. * In some browsers, tables which are right-aligned allow justified text to run right up to the edge of a border. This can look unsightly. One solution is to use style = "margin-left: 0.5em;" in the table header. Sorting Tables can be made sortable by adding the "sortable" class to them, as in {| class="wikitable sortable" The option to sort an individual column can be suppressed by adding the "unsortable" class to the header cell for that column, as in ! class="unsortable" | Column header Table